Those brushes with the law include 62 arrests for trespassing -- and incredibly, almost every citation was handed out at the 207 Quickstop, the convenience store where Sampson works.

How can someone be trespassing at their place of work? That's what Sampson's boss, store owner Alex Saleh, wondered. So he started paying closer attention and noticed that most of the people arrested on his property, customers and employees alike, tended to be poor and black, like Sampson.

Saleh launched an internal affairs complaint with Miami Gardens police but the move backfired, he said, with police becoming even more aggressive upon learning of the challenge. Saleh then installed a network of 15 video cameras -- not for protection against crime as he'd never been robbed. The cameras were to protect his staff and customers from police.

The results: a series of five disturbing videos published by the Miami Herald that appear to show over-the-top police behaviour on the premises. In one video, employee Sampson is detained at the 207 Quickmart and led away by officers after taking out the trash, one of his work duties. In another, Sampson is interrupted by police while he seen stocking coolers inside the store, handcuffed and led away on trespassing charges. The arrest report, obtained by the Miami Herald, indicates Sampson was loitering outside the store, despite video evidence to the contrary.

Miami Gardens Police Chief Matthew Boyd did not respond to the newspaper's request for comment. Instead he issued a statement saying his department is "committed to serving and protecting the citizens and businesses," of Miami Gardens, pop. 109,000.

But the force soon may have another opportunity to address the questions -- store owner Saleh is preparing a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging the department, under the direction of the city's top leaders, routinely conducts illegal stops and searches and other activities to cover up illegal misconduct.

From the other end of the Florida police blotter, meanwhile, St. Augustine is reeling after an extraodinary New York Times/PBS Frontline investigation raised new questions over the weekend about the possibility of a police coverup in the 2010 death of a deputy's girlfriend.

"This isn't Toronto," Bradford County Sheriff Gordon Smith said in a statement on the mayor's arrest. "We will not tolerate illegal drug activity in my jurisdiction by anyone, including our elected officials."

Mitch Potter is the Toronto Star's Washington Bureau Chief, his third foreign posting after previous assignments to London and Jerusalem. On Twitter: @MPwrites.

11/25/2013

Don't be fooled by this sedate scene near Sosúa in the Dominican Republic. The Caribbean country officially has the world's most dangerous roads, with an annual death rate of 41.7 fatalities per 100,000 population. (Photo: Alamy.)

Quick: which is the most dangerous country in the world for road-related fatalities?

The answer, at least officially, is the Dominican Republic, with an astounding annual death rate on the roads of 41.7 people killed for every 100,000 population.

For purposes of comparison, consider Canada, which has a corresponding rate of 6.8. That is pretty good, substantially better than the on-road performance of our neighbours immediately to the south (11.4) but not as impressive as the annual road-related death rate in the United Kingdom (3.7) or the level recorded in that perennial haven of probity, good sense, and safe driving, Sweden (3.0).

These and other figures, along with much more information about the dangers of this planet’s roads, can now be perused online, part of a project by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

It’s a sobering picture of a lethal and worsening threat.

Each year, more than 1.2 million humans lose their lives in road-related accidents, and that toll seems set to triple in the next two decades, with the worst effects being suffered in the developing world. By 2030, collisions and other highway mishaps will likely constitute the fifth largest cause of death in poor countries, the project says, worse than HIV/AIDS, malaria, or tuberculosis.

Called “Roads Kill,” the online project includes lengthy articles about diverse perils related to roads and to our species’ unfortunate penchant for careless and often lethal mistakes. An interactive map can be found here.

Among countries with the world’s most dangerous roads, few places are more lethal than Nigeria (33.7 annual deaths per 100,000 population), where more than 50,000 people lose their lives in road accidents each year. Even so, the Federal Road Safety Commission “only recently” required that aspiring drivers be required to take a test before acquiring a license. Before that, anyone who wanted a license could have one. All you had to do was pay.

Sherri Grady, a nurse with Sick Kids hospital, has worked with Médecins Sans Frontières for seven years, including in the Central African Republic, DRC, Chad, Niger and Haiti. On Monday, she arrived in the Philippines, where she will be spending six weeks helping survivors of Typhoon Haiyan. Photo source: Sherry Grady

Meet Sherri Grady, a nurse with Toronto's Sick Kids Hospital. On Nov. 15th – Sherri's birthday – she got a phone call that would temporarily uproot her life and fling her into a disaster zone halfway across the world:

"You're going to the Philippines."

Just days earlier, one of the most powerful typhoons in history had blown through the archipelago nation in Southeast Asia, leaving a major humanitarian crisis in its wake. On Saturday, more than two weeks after the storm, officials said the death toll from Typhoon Haiyan had reached 5,235, making it the country's deadliest disaster on record.

But Grady has gotten these kinds of calls before – she is also a humanitarian worker with Médecins Sans Frontières, a gig that has taken her everywhere from the Central African Republic and DRC to Chad and Niger. She also spent three months in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake, running a nutrition program in Carrefour, one of the most impoverished districts of Port-au-Prince (you can read some of her blog posts from Haiti here).

Today, Grady arrived in Cebu, one of the hardest-hit areas in the Philippines. When I spoke with her a few days ago, she had no idea where she'll be working in the country, what she'll be doing, or who she'll be doing it with – just that she will be calling the Philippines home for the next six weeks and doing whatever she can to help.

Before heading to Pearson airport, Sherri answered a few questions about how she was feeling prior to her mission. Over the next six weeks, we'll be checking in with Sherri periodically and sharing her updates here on this blog.

When did you find out you would be going to the Philippines – and how did this mission come about?

I found out that I would be leaving for the Philippines on my birthday a few days after the call had gone out for experienced expats to help with MSF's emergency response. It took numerous discussions between MSF, my current employer the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children (affectionately known as Sick Kids), and myself before the many necessary details were organized, enabling me to accept the mission.

What have you done this last week to prepare?

This last week has been a blur of activity. Prior to the mission, I already had a full schedule of shifts at Sick Kids into the new year. It was only through the amazing generosity of my Sick Kids colleagues, who volunteered to cover my shifts for me, that I have been able to negotiate the time off to go to the Philippines. Once my shifts were covered, I was able to focus on packing, updating my vaccinations, seeing friends and family and basically putting my life in order prior to leaving for six weeks – a task that seems to have become much more difficult, now that I have given up my nomadic life of yesteryears.

As far as you know, what will you be doing there?

This is the most frequently asked – yet most difficult to answer – question that I get. In other emergencies, I have been involved in providing primary healthcare through mobile clinics, secondary healthcare in a hospital setting, emergency vaccinations and even treating malnutrition. The key is flexibility and adaptability in the face of sometimes overwhelming medical and logistical needs and I am happy to fill any role necessary. I do really find that working directly with the local population is tremendously rewarding

What are you the most worried about?

Not having enough underwear. Seriously, that and being able to pay my mortgage while I am gone. I love my career and know my skills. Any anxieties are about what I am leaving behind, not where I am going.

Tell us three things you’ll be packing in your suitcase.

A headlamp, summer-weight sleeping bag, decongestants (I currently have a cold).

What are some lessons you’ve learned from past missions that you will be bringing with you to the Philippines?

Prioritize, be flexible and find the little successes to carry you through the hard times.

A final thought before you leave?

I am answering these questions while waiting for a friend to pick me up to take me to the airport... I have many final thoughts. Did I turn off the water heater? Have I thanked everyone who made this possible? What will I find when I land in Cebu?

I can only hope that my time in the Philippines will be spent in a meaningful way and that I have as much impact on their lives as the people I encounter usually have on mine. I carry people with me from every mission, kept safe and protected in my heart, and I wonder what new memories will find a home there in the next six weeks.

Canadian soldiers keep watch during a joint foot patrol with U.S. and Afghan National army in Arghandab district, Kandahar province October 31, 2009. (Reuters)

More than a decade after Canadian boots landed in the landlocked South Asian country, Canadian soldiers are growing increasingly skeptical about their mission there.

Some soldiers have been dispirited over being given orders not to interfere in cases of child sodomy because of their rules of engagement. When several soldiers and chaplains told The Star about that scandal, at least two investigations were opened by the military. One board of inquiry continues, more than five years after it was formed.

This weekend, a new survey conducted by the army found morale was shaky among the first set of Canadian troops who deployed to train the Afghan National Army following the end of Canada’s five-year combat mission in Kandahar. Murray Brewster of the Canadian Press reports one-third of the soldiers who took part in the end-of-tour study said they would be willing to deploy on similar, future operations.

“The morale of the participants was moderate to low at the individual (59 per cent) and unit level (72 per cent),” according to the survey. Half of the participants recognized the value of training the Afghans, but only “one-third (32 per cent) were optimistic about the mission.”

From April 2002 to Dec. 2012, 1,436 members of the Canadian armed forces have been killed in Afghanistan.

Now there's more news that is sure to shake the conviction of western soldiers risking their lives in Afghanistan.

“It is absolutely shocking that 12 years after the fall of the Taliban government, the Karzai administration might bring back stoning as a punishment,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “President Karzai needs to demonstrate at least a basic commitment to human rights and reject this proposal out of hand.”

The draft provisions, seen by Human Rights Watch, provide that if a couple is found by a court to have engaged in sexual intercourse outside a legal marriage, both the man and woman shall be sentenced to “[s]toning to death if the adulterer or adulteress is married.”

If the “adulterer or adulteress is unmarried,” the sentence shall be “whipping 100 lashes.”

Rick Westhead is a foreign affairs writer at The Star. He was based in India as the Star’s South Asia bureau chief from 2008 until 2011 and reports on international aid and development. Follow him on Twitter @rwesthead

11/22/2013

More than 11 years after Khadr was shot and captured in Afghanistan, more than seven years after he was first charged in Guantanamo with war crimes, and more than three years after he pleaded guilty in return for an eight-year-sentence, that's the key question still being debated in court.

But thanks to what one law professor has called a "highly unusual" court order, that question could take years to decide.

Sam Morison, Khadr's Pentagon lawyer, said Friday that he received an order from the Court of Military Commissions Review, the Washington appeals court set up to hear challenges of Guantanamo convictions. The court only wants to hear arguments as to whether they have the authority to hear the appeal, not the merits of the appeal itself, he said.

This is not the norm, and it's not what has happened in three other cases that have come before the court.

"I think it's highly unusual. It doesn't make sense," said Jonathan Hafetz, an associate professor of law at Seton Hall Law School, in an interview Friday.

Morison called it a "complete departure from standard practice."

As Canadian Press reporter Colin Perkel explains: "Normally, appeal courts hear arguments on all the issues at play — including the merits of the case — allowing everything to be decided together."

That's what is happening in the case of Australian David Hicks, who also had a Guantanamo plea deal, and launched his appeal just a couple days before Khadr.

The court order in the Khadr case means his appeal could bounce from the military appeals court to a civilian court, and back again.

"This order is a recipe for enormous delay in a case where there's already been enormous delay," Hafetz said. "He's got a very strong argument and yet they're not going to consider it and they're just going to string this out."

The U.S. appeal seeks to overturn Khadr's conviction, arguing he cannot be guilty of war crimes because in 2002, when he was captured, it was not considered a war crime to kill a soldier in battle. (Khadr pleaded guilty in 2010 to throwing a grenade in Afghanistan that fatally wounded Delta Force soldier Christopher Speer.)

That charge of "murder in violation of the laws of war" was only introduced with the Bush administration's creation of the Military Commission Act following the Sept. 11 attacks.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia’s three-judge panel cleared Yemeni Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s former driver and one of Guantanamo’s most famous prisoners, in an October 2012 ruling that stated he could not be convicted of “material support for terrorism,” which was not a war crime at the time Hamdan chauffeured the Al Qaeda leader.

Because of that decision — referred to as Hamdan II — there is a strong argument for Khadr's conviction to also be overturned, although his case is unique because of the plea deal and the difference of charges.

Remember Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? We were just learning how to pronunce his name when he ceased to be president of Iran. Now we have to start all over with Hassan Rouhani. (AFP/Getty.)

True, we don’t have Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to kick around anymore.

(All together now: that’s mah-MOOD ah-mah-DIH-nee-zhahd.)

Alas, the former president of Iran (ee-RAHN) completed his second term in office earlier this year, to be replaced by Hassan Rouhani (hah-SAHN roh-hah-NEE).

Give up yet?

It might be tempting simply to admit defeat when faced by all these multitudes of foreign names whose rendering in English seems to offer little guidance to their proper pronunciation. Even worse are words – and they are legion – whose spelling in English seems to be directing us in the exact wrong direction.

For example: Iraq.

Even many of the U.S. and other troops who invaded the country and then occupied it for many long and bloody years remain stubbornly convinced that the place is called eye-RACK. (No doubt this belief has something to do with the way its name is spelled in English).

Common though it is, that pronunciation is wrong.

The name of Iraq is pronounced ee-RAHK.

Yes, it’s confusing, but it is nonetheless important. After all, people do like to hear the names of their countries – not to mention the names they go by themselves – pronounced more or less correctly. The difference between successful and failed diplomacy hangs on details such as these.

Fortunately, there is help.

One useful guide to the pronunciation of foreign names can be found at inogolo.com, which helpfully provides audio links as well as printed phonetic renderings of everything from Azerbaijan (a-zur-by-JAHN) to Zimbabwe (zim-BAHB-way).

Unfortunately, the site is not exhaustive. Type in Al-Quds (the Arab name for Jerusalem), and the site will helpfully inform you that “Al” is pronounced – drum roll, please – “al.” That’s it.

True devotees of accurate pronunciation may wish to consult the Oxford BBC Guide to Pronunciation, available from amazon.co.uk for £11.89 with free delivery – but only in the U.K.

Another very good on-line resource is called pro-nounce. It’s the Voice of America pronunciation guide. This site provides a guide to pronunciation in audio form as well as in printed phonetic text. It is both comprehensive and up-to-date. Just remember to type in the names of people with the last name first.

The VOA site will inform you, for example, that Giorgi Margvelashvili, is pronounced ghee-OHR-ghee mahrg-veh-lash-VEE-lee.

Don’t know who Giorgi Margvelashvili is? Well, you’ll have to look that up elsewhere.

A woman makes her way past the house where eight members of a Mexican family were murdered on Wednesday over a $120 debt. (Juan Carlos Llorca/Associated Press.)

Mexico. Mexico. Mexico.

As we all know, it’s a big, complicated country. Inevitably, it produces all sorts of news, much of it good.

For example, The New York Timesreports this week from the hauntingly beautiful central Mexican city of Guanajuato about the rise of a new and prosperous middle class south of the Rio Grande.

“Mexico is finally attracting the higher-end industries that experts say could lead to lasting prosperity … ” writes Times correspondent Damien Cave. “In a country where connections and corruption are still common tools of enrichment, many people here are beginning to believe they can get ahead through study and hard work.”

Meanwhile, in the turbulent border city of Ciudad Juarez – haunted by the narcotics trade and until recently considered the murder capital of the world – the news was characteristically grim.

This past Wednesday, eight members of a church-going family all wound up dead as a result of an unpaid debt equivalent to $120 Cdn. The victims included three young children.

According to prosecuting attorneys, the debt was owed by Maximo Romero Sanchez as a result of an unpaid stud fee involving a dog he owned. Several men turned up to collect the money. They didn’t get it, so they used a knife to murder everyone in the house – Sanchez, his wife, their two kids, aged four and six, plus four other relatives, including a two-year-old infant.

According to a report by the Associated Press, two men have been arrested for the crime – Jesus Mendoza Hernandez, 21, and Edgar Lujan Guevara, 31. Others are apparently being sought.

It seems almost impossible to make any sense of this murder. On the other hand, Ciudad Juarez has witnessed horrific levels of drug-fueled physical mayhem in recent years. No doubt violence feeds upon itself, lowering the inhibitions that would otherwise limit the use of bloodshed. Maybe that backdrop played a role in shaping the equation.

Man owes $120 + man can’t pay = kill everyone in the house.

Mexico – a complicated land.

Here’s hoping that high-end industry and better education prevail over bloodlust and grief.

11/21/2013

Sen. Hillary Clinton talks on her cell phone before takeoff on the 2008 campaign trail. But will it fly? Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images.

There’s an old, old song that goes “yakety yak, don’t talk back.” And it seems due for a reversal, courtesy of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

The regulatory body, in a bid to please cell phone addicts for whom air time is hot air time -- or the carriers that charge for their calls -- has touched off a fierce talk-back by proposing to quash “outdated and restrictive” rules that ban cell use while in flight.

The new guidelines, says the Washington Post’s Brian Fung, would “let airlines install special equipment to relay wireless signals from the plane to the ground, likely by way of a satellite connection.” A match for a system already in place in Europe.

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, who backs the measure, says it’s time for a “review of new mobile opportunities for consumers,” i.e. opportunities to infuriate people at a range of 10 metres with endless, obnoxious babble usually conducted at a decibel level that matches the cruising altitude of the average airplane.

A similar idea was dropped in 2007 after opposition from those – including flight attendants – who were outraged at the prospect of constantly ringing phones and intrusive talkers.

At a time when the pushback from electronic “living out loud” is growing, with increasing numbers of ear-weary commuters demanding quiet space on public transit, the proposal seems to be swimming against the tide.

In spite of the hazards of small, screaming children, one of the few remaining bearables of air travel is the relative lack of conversation, as passengers sink into a silent slump of movie-watching and tapping their (allowable) devices. And the inability of bosses, spouses, clients or friends to reach them in mid-flight is a tiny scrap of compensation for hours spent crammed into ever-smaller seats that they outnumber by a ratio of two to one.

That’s not just me talking.

Online reaction to the news was fast and furious.

“Oh good, they’ve figured out how to annoy everyone at once,” snarked one responder.

“Flying has descended to the fourth level of hell already,” groaned another, asking for a feedback link to the regulatory body, because. “it cannot be allowed to get even worse.”

As I've written on this blog before, the Gates Foundation is looking for a new and improved condom. Why? Because condoms are amazingly effective when it comes to preventing STDS and deadly diseases like HIV. But nobody wants to use them.

"The common analogy is that wearing a condom is like taking a shower with a raincoat on,” Dr. Papa Salif Sow, the foundation's senior HIV program officer, told the Guardian. “A redesigned condom that overcomes inconvenience, fumbling or perceived loss of pleasure would be a powerful weapon in the fight against poverty.”

Some of the next-generation condom ideas that are now $100,000 closer to your nightstand:

A condom made from cow fibres or fish skin

According to the New York Times, this "ultrasensitive reconstituted collagen condom" will feel like human skin but be made from what is apparently the next best thing: collagen fibres taken from cows' Achilles tendons. (The designer has also apparently floated the idea of using fish skin).

McGlothlin said he gets his beef tendon from a Chinese food store (although the Times reported it was a Vietnamese grocery) and it makes for an "unbelievably strong" product. "I could yank all day and not break the thing," he said.

A condom designed to provide a "universal fit"

Dreamt up by Benjamin Strutt and his team of UK-based designers, this condom will be made from a "composite anisotropic material" that will fit any man and "gently tighten during intercourse, enhancing sensation and reliability." They say function and performance issues will be identified by "consulting with users" (how exactly does one get a job as a condom consultant?).

A one-motion condom applicator

Thanks to an applicator called "Rapidom," putting on a condom will someday be fumble-free, doable in one swift (and sexy?) motion.

Kimbranox Ltd. in South Africa promises the applicator will be "technique free" -- words people usually don't like to associate with sex but, in this context, is a very good thing. "Manual applications of condom takes time, which can lead to incorrect positioning as it interrupts the sexual act, and current applicators require good technique," says the project description on the Gates Foundation website.

For a graphic explaining how the applicator works, the New Republic has a photo.

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